WBCN (AM)

WBCN (1660 AM, "America's Pulse 1660") is a radio station licensed to serve Charlotte, North Carolina. The station is owned by Beasley Broadcast Group. The studios are located on South Boulevard in Charlotte's South End and a transmitter is located in West Charlotte.

WBCN is licensed to broadcast in HD on 1660 AM.

History

The station signed on in December 2003 as WFNA to help improve the signal range of Charlotte's original all-sports station, WFNZ, airing some of that station's programming. WFNZ must power down to 1,000 watts at night, rendering it all but unlistenable in some parts of the market.

The station was assigned the call letters WBMX on July 29, 2009. It was assigned the WBCN call letters by the Federal Communications Commission on August 12, 2009. The assignment of the WBMX and WBCN call letters came as CBS Radio prepared for a radio station shuffle in Boston. WBCN, Boston's longtime rock station, was set to move to a digital-only platform, while WBMX was slated to move from 98.5 FM to WBCN's old position at 104.1 FM. This swap was being made to create a sports talk station at 98.5 FM. On August 5, 2009, Mix 98.5 in Boston switched its call letters from WBMX-FM to WBZ-FM, the call letters of the new sports station. The WBMX calls were parked at WFNA, while WBCN aired for its final days. Shortly after midnight on August 12, 2009, WBCN signed off, and the WBCN and WBMX call letters were switched to complete the process.

WBCN

WBCN may refer to:

See also

WBCN (FM)

WBCN is a digital-only radio station airing on WBZ-FM HD-2 and on WZLX HD-3 in Boston, Massachusetts and owned by CBS Radio. Before switching to 98.5 HD-2 on August 12, 2009, WBCN featured its rock format for 41 years as an analog radio station on 104.1 MHz (now WBMX). WBCN became a legend in the rock music industry for breaking many bands, most notably U2. WBCN was a modern rock/active rock station that mixed music that has been popular in the modern rock, alternative rock and classic rock genres. Known as "The Rock of Boston", its three main Boston-area competitors as of 2009 were Album Oriented Rock/active rock WAAF and alternative music stations WBOS and WFNX.

The station went off the FM airwaves on August 12, 2009, with two digital-only automated streams, one continuing the modern rock format, the other Free Form BCN, airing an eclectic mix of rock, related genres, and a lot of new music - essentially the WBCN of 1968 to 1988, brought into the 21st Century. "Free Form BCN" began airing live freeform shows in September 2009 on 100.7 HD-3 and at wbcn.com. While still digital and largely automated, the station is live 10am–4pm Monday through Thursday and till 6pm on Friday. WBCN's first Rock program director, Sam Kopper is PD of WBCN Free Form Rock and he does the 10-1 air-shift M-F. All but one of the live DJ shifts originate from the DJs' homes, Sam from East Greenwich, RI; David Wohlman from Hamilton, MA; Destiny Curtis from Exeter, NH; and Nancy Walton from Missoula, MT. The Friday 4-6 shift, usually DJed by Adam Luciano originates from CBS FM headquarters in Boston. "Free Form BCN" was discontinued on January 29, 2016, leaving WBZ-FM-HD2ms format as the last remaining tie to WBCN.